


california, just a bad dream (i will hang around until you want me)

by somniatoressinespe



Series: flower au madness [3]
Category: Runaways (Comics), Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Flower AU, enjoy, ok this is the last one i swear, still karolina pov, still sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:47:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22049593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somniatoressinespe/pseuds/somniatoressinespe
Summary: The girl may have been pretty, but she also was, simply put, not Nico.or 'karolina cant stop thinking of nico for long enough to get hit on'
Relationships: Karolina Dean/Nico Minoru
Series: flower au madness [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1585909
Comments: 12
Kudos: 123





	california, just a bad dream (i will hang around until you want me)

**Author's Note:**

> i swear this is the last one and if it isn't you can send someone to take me out.

Just like Karolina hadn’t started going to the coffee shop down the road to pass near Nico’s shop every morning, Karolina hadn’t went back to the hole in the wall pub she had brought Nico too on their first not-date just to impress her because it looked like a place she’d like, just because Nico may have been there.

She hadn’t done that because that would be just ridiculous and very, _very_ desperate- two things Karolina isn't, obviously.

Karolina just happens to be in that same pub at the moment, nothing more nothing less, and if she’s sitting so that she may face the entrance of the pub at all times, well. Karolina simply isn’t drunk enough to think about the reason why.

Now, the reasons _Karolina_ is drunk vary with each drink, though the link beneath them do not. Simply, girls.

 _A lot of girls_ _but not the right girl,_ Karolina thinks with not even a hint of self-satisfaction- and what the hell had happened to her?

(Nico had completely ruined her.)

(Why doesn't she seem to mind?)

Because Karolina isn’t so dumb as not to know _why_ so many drinks were offered in the span of what? two hours? the problem is, she just doesn’t care.

And honestly, why should she?

If Karolina were to be truthful, she isn’t doing anything at the moment but waiting- and maybe drowning her sorrows for a bit, she adds in her mind with a huff of a laugh and because she's being honest to herself.

Waiting for Nico to stop hurting for long enough to tell her how to fix it, for long enough so that they may talk, for long enough so that Karolina could just _fix_ everything.

(She doesn't let herself think for how much she would just sit and wait for Nico because the answer is as obvious as it is sad.)

Karolina shots the last of the kind of awful gin mixture the last girl had sent over just as another girl slides into the seat next to hers.

Karolina tries not to sigh in disappointment as she watches the girl lean on the counter, her bronze skin glowing under the shitty neon light of the pub, short dark brown curls falling over her big brown doe-like eyes- and those almost look familiar, only the ones she longs for are darker, smaller, lovelier.

It wasn't like the girl wasn't pretty- Karolina still has eyes and a working brain, even if her heart was otherwise blind at the moment- but Karolina can't, and won't, spare her more than a glance.

The girl may have been pretty, but she also was, simply put, not Nico. 

And that was something Karolina just couldn’t get over.

“Hey,” the girl greets her, a smile on her lips that shows a lone dimple on her left cheek, “Can I buy you a drink?”

Karolina looks down at her empty glass, and back to the girl- and, okay, it's not like she's going to outright _deny_ free booze. “Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“I don’t think I’ll be of much company if you did.”

The girl laughs like Karolina had said anything of meaning, tossing her head back, curls bumping around her forehead- Karolina supposes she would find it charming under other circumstances. “I think I’ll try my chances.”

Karolina shrugs, and the girl calls out to the bartender, ordering two whiskeys on the rocks- and at least this girl had better taste in drinks that the last one.

“So,” the girl starts, “What’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?”

“A girl like me?” Karolina asks, because Nico isn’t here and she might as well entertain this as she waits.

(She knows Nico will come deep somewhere in her soul, just like she knows she loves her. She has faith in them.)

The girl smiles again, lone dimple surfacing too, as she answers, “Beautiful.”

Karolina tries her best not to frown at that. Of course. What else did she expect? This girl didn’t know her, this girl wasn’t Nico.

Karolina takes a sip of her whiskey, the burn in her throat welcome- a different kind of bitterness.

“You didn’t tell me your name yet,” the girl says after Karolina makes it obvious she doesn't intend on filling the silence with words.

“Karolina.”

The girl waits, before lifting an eyebrow- and that too feels familiar, familiar but just not _right._

“What? You won’t ask for mine?”

Karolina smirks and she tries her hand at being mean. “I don’t think I will, no.”

The girl does not take it like Karolina thought she would, though, because instead of leaving she scoots closer, a hand coming to rest on Karolina's arm, curling over the naked skin of her bicip.

Before Karolina can decide how to react at the touch, she feels what she can only define as a tug in her stomach and the strangest sensation of being watched.

Karolina turns and oh, she did not see that one coming.

Nico is here.

Nico is finally here, and staring right back at Karolina.

And Karolina’s legs feel like lead, and her heart is going a thousand miles a minute, and she can’t do anything but stare back at Nico.

She wants… she wants to go to her, to hold her in her arms, to kiss her until she runs out of breath.

(Simply put, Karolina just wants Nico.)

But Nico had told her she doesn’t want to talk to Karolina, at least not now. But Nico had been so cold when Karolina had gone to her this morning- no, not cold, worse. Indifferent. But Nico is looking at her now with poison in her eyes- or maybe she’s looking at the girl, but she’s sure at least 87% of that is directed at Karolina’s herself.

But Nico had wished for time, and Karolina will give it to her.

(Karolina just wants Nico, but she's desperate for Nico to want just her, too.)

So Karolina lets her eyes gloss over her, her heart dropping to her stomach as she did so.

She tries to focus back on the girl, at least for a second, but she can’t help sneaking one last glance at Nico’s table- because Karolina wants, and wants, and wants, until there's no space left to do anything but long for Nico- only to find it empty.

And here’s something else Karolina can’t help.

She stands up and follows Nico out of the pub.

(She has come to the simple understanding she’ll always follow Nico, no matter what.)

**Author's Note:**

> im sorry. i was bored and tipsy and i have no excuses.
> 
> enjoy?


End file.
